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Rapists jailed for just 40 months after judge says 11-year-old victim was 'willing'

3 replies

KRITIQ · 22/02/2012 14:46

story here.

"Judge David Farrell QC jailed them both for just 40 months each as he accepted the claim that she was willing and looked "at least" 14."

Funny, but I thought 14 was still under the age of consent for sex with a 21 year old man, quite apart from the fact that how a girl or woman "looks" should NEVER be a justification for rape, full stop.

I despair.

HelenMumsnet · 28/02/2012 12:21

Afternoon all. We're going to move this thread to In the News now. It does indeed sound as though it belongs there.

HelenMumsnet · 28/02/2012 13:14

@seeker

Thank you. A little puzzled as to why it looks that way now when it didn't on Sunday- but better late than never.

Ah seeker, as practically perfect as we're sure you know we are at MNHQ, there is always the minute possibility that, once or twice, we might not get things completely right first time.

HelenMumsnet · 28/02/2012 13:31

@SardineQueen

I think that comment upthread should stand TBH so that people can see the views that some people out there have.

Feminism may have a bad name in some people's eyes but as long as there are people out there who feel the way the judge and the person on this thread does, it is so important to keep gong.

Yes, as you've probably all noticed, we have let "that" post to stand. Thanks for all who've mailed in about it: if you haven't had a personal reply already, it's on its way.

For those who didn't report but would still like to know our reasons for leaving the post up, we're going to repost one of our responses on this thread to make things a little clearer.

On the moderation of discussion on the site, we absolutely do not tolerate out-and-out victim-blaming posts, eg "well, she was obviously asking for it" or "you were drunk, what do you expect?" - and we will delete them, as soon as we are made aware of them, with no debate, discussion or mitigating pleas.

We won't though, delete posts that form part of a reasonable and valid discussion, even if those posts are made in mahoosive ignorance. So, if someone we believed to be a genuine poster came onto a thread and said, "But I thought most rapists were strangers", we would rather let it stand and allow others to correct that particular rape myth on the thread, thereby educating others in the process.

We hope that clarifies thing. We've always thought it's wrong to adopt a policy of blanket censorship (though it might be easier to implement!) Instead, we feel it's wiser to judge each post that's reported on its individual words and context, and make decisions on a post-by-post basis.

Watch this thread for updates

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